Based at Southampton General Hospital, Leukaemia Busters was founded in 1989 by three sets of parents whose children were receiving treatment for leukaemia or lymphoma in the Wessex Children’s Cancer Unit based in the same hospital. One set of parents, Drs David and Bee Flavell were already established leukaemia research workers in the School of Medicine at the same hospital and were developing new antibodies for the diagnosis of leukaemia and lymphoma.
Leukaemia Busters was formed to help fund work in the Flavell’s laboratories that would explore the use of antibody-based treatments for leukaemia and lymphoma at a time when many other scientists and pharmaceutical companies did not seriously consider antibodies as good candidates for new drugs. Time has proven this view to be wrong and now antibodies and antibody derived drugs are proving highly effective for treating leukaemia and other cancers.
Over the past 35 years...
Leukaemia Busters has participated and contributed to the revolution that has taken antibody treatments for cancer, including leukaemia and lymphoma, to the forefront of today’s effective treatments.
Once considered niche treatments, antibody-based therapies have become mainstream and have significantly improved survival rates for many patients with various types of cancer.
The charity’s work continues in this area of research with ever increasing optimism that further development and refinement of antibody-based treatments will lead to an ever increasing cure rate for leukaemia and lymphoma patients who were previously incurable.
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